Franklin Zimring quoted in The Wall Street Journal, June 28, 2013 (registration required)

“This is unprecedented in modern urban American history,” he says. While there is no easy answer for why the numbers are going down in New York and other urban areas, he says the murder decline in 2012 and the continuing drop in 2013 were distinct from the period from 1990 through 2009 when a study of his concluded that the NYPD’s policing policies “are the only obvious candidate to take credit for the crime drop.” He adds, “What we have now is good news without a ready explanation.”

Frankin Zimring quoted in Huffington Post, June 14, 2013

The big story is still the murder rate, Zimring said. “For a city of its size and diversity, New York City’s homicide experience is very close to Guinness Book of World Records, certainly by American standards, and it just keeps going lower,” he said.

Franklin Zimring quoted in San Francisco Chronicle, June 4, 2013 (registration required)

“My take on what’s going on in Northern California is that it’s relatively uneven,” said Franklin Zimring, a UC Berkeley law professor and criminologist. “You have Oakland way up, and you have Richmond, which is every bit as crime-impacted, substantially down with respect to life-threatening violence. So whatever is going on is much more uneven than a single arrow pointed in a single direction.”

Franklin Zimring quoted in The Times-Standard, May 22, 2013

“It’s a complicated game in California,” Zimring said. “California and nationally, the number of capital trials and death sentence verdicts has been going down over the past decade. In part, that’s a matter of cost because local governments have been under financial pressure. In part, that’s a function of lower homicide rates, and in part, that’s a function of less enthusiasm for capital outcomes.”

Franklin Zimring quoted in Los Angeles Times, May 18, 2013

When Bratton took charge in 2002, the LAPD was struggling with high crime and a federal consent decree, UC Berkeley criminal-justice expert Franklin Zimring recently told the Oakland City Council. Now community trust is up, and L.A.’s crime reduction success is “second only to New York.”

Franklin Zimring quoted in The Oakland Tribune, May 15, 2013

Whether Troche was justified in shooting at the car depends on what kind of risk the officer and his passenger faced, said Franklin Zimring, UC Berkeley School of Law professor. Because there was only one way out of the parking lot, it could be argued that Pakman was trying to leave, not strike the officer, Zimring said. “I wouldn’t want to be the Police Department’s liability insurer, but the question of sequence and the officer’s perceptions are going to be the issue,” he said.

Franklin Zimring cited in San Francisco Chronicle, April 21, 2013

Zimring, a professor of law at the UC Berkeley School of Law, has offered an inside look at the effectiveness of public policy as enshrined in our laws. His 2012 book, “The City That Became Safe,” chronicled how New York City cut its crime rate by 80 percent. How? Effective policing. He’s looked at the causes of gun violence (too many guns on the street) and the roots of American capital punishment.

Franklin Zimring writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, April 21, 2013

Ours is now a republic of seat belts, air bags, padded steering wheels, interstate highways, tough and high-priority drunk-driving enforcement and traffic safety legislation. But behind all of this was the game-changing creation of government efforts to make cars, drivers and roads less dangerous. It is probable that the cumulative impact of all these changes has saved more than 1 million lives just in the 11 years after the turn of the century. A government program that has saved more than a million lives in just 11 years? Why is this one of the best-kept secrets of modern life?

Franklin Zimring interviewed by Minnesota Public Radio, The Daily Circuit, April 4, 2013

“Public opinion in terms of the yes or no on the death penalty never varies much among the American states…. The six states you’re talking about who have formally abolished, it’s a big change…. These are states that had death rows, extremely expensive death penalty litigation systems and few or no executions.”